Tuesday Bolts – 1.22.13

Matt Moore of CBSSports.com on the MVP race: “Voting Durant is a vote for a different, younger player, a recognition of his ascendance. Voting Anthony is about rewarding a player for improving and doing it in New York. (No, that should not matter, but like I said, some of this is awful.) Voting for Paul is a lifetime achievement award deal. Voting for LeBron is voting for the best player in the league, and who wants that? So there you have it. 3-3 LeBron vs. Durant. But Durant’s second-place votes give him an edge there. Let’s be clear, though. Durant has played at a phenomenal level, and honestly, if he played like this last season, he might have been the leader. I’m keeping James at the top based on the totality of his play, but Durant’s improved rebounding and overwhelming scoring punch makes this exceptionally tight. And a very fun race.”

OKC stayed No. 1 in Marc Stein’s power rankings: “A true privilege to be in the building for Durant’s 52 points. A mild surprise, too, even after KD’s 40 against Dallas in December, since he showed up with a career scoring average of just 22.4 ppg against the Mavs — and a FG percentage of .413 — for his lifetime lows against any franchise.”

NBA.com dropped OKC to No. 3: “The Thunder have split the first two games of their six-game road trip, both of which went to overtime. Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook combined for 156 points in the two games, but Westbrook’s two blocks on Rocky the Mountain Lion was the best job OKC did of defending the basket all weekend. Tuesday brings a showdown with the Clips for first place in the West.”

Anthony Slater of NewsOK on KD and 20,000 points: “As of Monday, Kevin Durant is 24 years and 113 days old. His birthday is September 29th. That means, his cut-off date for the 20,000-point record would be Oct., 16, 2016, when he’d be the exact same age LeBron was last Wednesday in Oakland. D has scored 11,187 points up to this point in his career, counting the 37 he dropped last night in Denver. Including the 41 games left this season, there will be 287 regular season contests before the 2016-17 season starts in late October, days after Durant will have hit the deadline date. So KD has 287 games to score 8,813 points. That’s 30.7 points per game (at a minimum), a number he’s yet to hit during a full season at any point in his career (30.1 is his highest). He’s averaging 29.5 points per game this year. It’s certainly not impossible, but at this point seems unlikely. He’s going to need to stay freakishly healthy (something he’s done so far) and start scoring at an even higher rate. Not saying he isn’t capable, but not betting on it either.”

Jeremy Lamb and Daniel Orton have been assigned to the 66ers.

Jenni Carlson: “Russell Westbrook snagged the loose ball and heaved it toward the goal in the final frantic seconds at Denver. The shot never got above his waist. Swatted away. Can you say karma? On Sunday night when the Thunder point guard became Public Enemy No. 1 in the Mile High City, he swatted away not one but two halfcourt shot attempts by … wait for it … the Nuggets’ mascot. Yes, the mascot. And I don’t get the feeling like Westbrook regrets it in the least. He’s embarking on a West Coast swing that will pit him against Chris Paul, Stephen Curry, Isaiah Thomas and Steve Nash. Here’s betting a little extra mojo will come in handy, even at the expense of a giant stuffed animal.”

Zach Lowe of Grantland on All-Star reserves: “Ibaka has improved on both ends, but the jump has been higher on offense, where he gets to work as a third cog around two stars who bend defenses away from him. He has a fairly low usage rate for an All-Star candidate, and though he’s more solid on defense this season, he can still struggle with positioning against shooting power forwards — and against pump fakes. In a crowded field, he’s a painful final cut.”

What do you guys think of this? Predicated on the "if" of Bynum returning before the deadline and we would give our #1 as well as the Toronto and Dallas pick to othe other teams in some fashion. Not quite sure which would go where.
http://espn.go.com/nba/tradeMachine?tradeId=a427s9f
Shoot away, folks.

Alrighty man! Gives me enough time to get back into running. Maybe lifting a bit of weights, and running a shit load with keep me fresh against the bigs down low. I might not outmuscle them but maybe i can be how Faried is and just be a pest down there.

@MJOKC Me too. But I have to be 100% for my classes. My law professors pick on you hardcore if they see you hungover/sleepy. Besides, I am already planning on getting drunk Sunday for the Lakers game. I can't drink more than once a month when I'm going to school.

I live in a VERY rural town anyways. Ain't nobody breaking into shitz. Lawton is having a crime overload lately though. But Elgin, nah I could leave my doors wide the hell open and come back a week later and I'd be good. Mostly Army folks on my block too

@MJOKC@ElMexiThunder@justin_miaNot a gun dude. I got a bunch of knives and swords though. I keep one right under my bed in arm's reach in the unlikely event of a home invasion but it's funny, i have nightmares literally every night plus I sleep like and my HVAC always wakes me up because it sounds exactly like a door closing when it shuts off. So I wake up at like 3 thinking I hear someone in the other room, grab this longass sword, and go tiptoeing around the corners and peaking in the other rooms (I live in a 3br house alone), realize it was nothing, pee and go back to bed.

If I had a gun, I'd probably accidentally shoot myself in the foot or something

@ElMexiThunder@MJOKC@justin_miaWaiting turns is weak sauce unless you mean waiting for next and winner staying on. I'm not worried bout any fouls. I'm built for it. I mean dudes tryna fight me, it;s whatever, but I'd be 70 miles from home dolo so that could be an issue. I don't carry the heat on me

Man that was my fault dude, but i'm down to hoop whenever, there's a court right by my house litterally on Meiridan that we can go to, but the only problem is we have to wait turns to play pick up, they play hard too but i know you said you go hard in the paint too.

@MJOKC@ElMexiThunder@justin_miaNo yall didn't. Nobody ever got at me. I would've been up there. I sit in Elgin bored as hell, there isn't even a court anywhere in the whole city that I have seen.

Well yea there was the one time E gave me not so great directions. Apparently I had actually found the place but yall were on the other side of the school. I passed like 10 unoccupied courts to get there too

Hell yeah, i remember they all got happy at the end of the night when we left because they didn't have to worry about double teamming you anymore, and didn't have to worry about me fouling the shit out of em.

I'm gonna have to learn to play without fouling, if i have that edge in my legs i won't have to worry about using body to recover, or to alter if i'm right in front of them.

Hell yeah that one time we played at OCU all of them dudes on the other squad would triple team you as soon as you got the ball. You'd do me the favor of passing it out to me for the open shot, but my ass has no shot LMAO!!

That's bad ass, i don't mind coming off the bench. Like i said making if i keep my legs fresh, and i start doing jumping excircises it may give me an edge of speed compared to size. When you, and your boy get tired and we have to go small i'm not a complete liability against the biggers players if im out hustling them. Besides you know me, i'm not afraid to give up my body to make a play or two.

@justin_mia@MJOKC@OBoy Jones III@D-MC Yup! That's my dad! He started with a small car body shop in our own garage because he loved it and now he owns 8 car shops in San Diego. He doesn't need to, but every day he is the first one to get to the shop and the last one to leave